Farewell Instructions
BY TOM HOLT
WHEN I was in grade school, my father had to take a long business trip abroad. On the day of his departure, he called us children together and told us to be sure to listen to our mother while he was gone, and to do the chores he had assigned to each of us. It was a short talk, but the message came through loud and clear.Matthew 28:18-20 Before our Lord ascended back to heaven, He also gave a concise talk to His disciples, which by extension includes all of us believers. That farewell talk is recorded in the last three
verses of Matthew 28. I'm sure most of you are familiar with it. But sometimes, we can be so familiar with a passage as to gloss over its important teaching. So, I would like to share some thoughts with you on these parting words from Christ.The talk consists only of three statements. First, the Lord makes an announcement: "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me." He then gives us what is generally called the Great Commission: "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you." And He concludes with this reassuring promise: "And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
The authority
To start with, have you ever wondered why it was necessary for the Lord Jesus to be given new authority in heaven and on earth? He is Eternal God. He is the Lord God Almighty. Even before His death and resurrection, couldn't He have done whatever He wanted to do? Indeed, He could. When Adam and Eve rebelled against Him, He could easily have destroyed the universe at once and created a brand new one with new, obedient people.But God is not interested in just showing His power to create and to destroy. A major reason behind His salvation plan, as we learn in Romans 9:23, is to "make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory."
Even before time began, you see, God had chosen a group of people that He would save and bring to glory at the last day, while all the billions of other people that had ever lived on this earth will be eternally condemned. In eternity, these objects of His mercy will then thoroughly appreciate the riches of God's glory, as evidenced in His supreme mercy, grace and love.
Justice. If God were concerned only with demonstrating His power and mercy and grace and love, He could still have decided to spare a group of people from eternal damna
tion, allowing them to enter heaven instead. After all, He is the Sovereign Lord. He does what He pleases. What makes our God all the more worthy of praise and adoration, however, is that He cannot sin. He cannot do anything that violates His own justice and righteousness. In short, He is a God of law and order.Just consider how orderly He has made this universe. Even thousands of years ago, people were able to navigate the seas and mark the seasons by measuring the movements of stars. More recently, spacecraft can be sent to faraway planets with great accuracy because NASA could count on the law of gravity to prevail. In fact, none of the explosive advances in modern technology of late could have been achieved had scientists not been able to rely on the consistency of all the natural laws set forth by God.
Since God is the One who established the natural laws, He also has the authority to suspend them whenever it serves His purpose. Thus, God was able to make a star move in such a way as to guide the wise men from the east to the very house where Baby Jesus lived. And Christ was able to walk on water and go through walls.
Besides the laws for nature, of course, God also made laws for mankind. But these laws are meant to extend beyond this creation into eternity; they are never to be changed. Hence, even God Himself cannot violate His own law and arbitrarily spare any sinner from being punished. To save a group of people for Himself, He had to send His Son Jesus to earth and to die for their sins. It was only because and after Christ had died and resurrected, therefore, was He given the authority in heaven and on earth to save the elect.
The Great Commission
Now, we can understand why the Lord began the second part of His farewell instructions with the word "Therefore". "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations." Having officially been given the authority to save people from all over the world, He now gives believers the Great Commission.Note that God says go and make disciples, not believers. Strictly speaking, every believer is a disciple of Christ, and vice versa. The trouble is, some people believe in their heads, but not in their hearts, and they can't tell the difference. There is no problem for anyone to determine whether he is a disciple of Christ or not, however.
In Luke 14:26,27, the Lord Himself clearly defines who qualify to be His disciples:
If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sistersyes, even his own lifehe cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.In the spiritual world, God is saying, we can only have one master. If we love Christ, we cannot help but hate anyone or anything that keeps us from following Christ. That includes our father and mother, our wife and children, our brothers and sistersyes, even our own life. Only when we are willing to die to ourselves and follow Christ can we be His disciples.Whole counsel. So, when the Lord Jesus commands us to go and make disciples, he is telling us to make sure that we present the whole counsel of God, not a sugar-coated gospel. Then, the people who respond positively are more likely to be true believerspeople that regard Christ as the Lord and King of their life, people that will not be detracted from worshipping, loving and serving God by even their close family members nor by their own life.
We are to make disciples "of all nations". Before Christ's death and resurrection, you see, God had dealt mainly with the Israelites. The Gentiles, as God puts it in Ephesians 2, were "foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world" (v.12). Only after the Cross did God extend His salvation program to all nations and tribes. On the day of Pentecost alone, after the Holy Spirit was poured out, people from well over fifteen different nations responded to Peter's witnessing and were saved.
Baptism. How do we make disciples? The second half of verse 19 says: "Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." This is not referring to water baptism, because going through that or any other ritual cannot save anyone. The baptism spoken of here is the spiritual washing that is performed by God Himself.
Remember what John the Baptist said when he told people to repent? He said, "I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire" (Matt. 3:11).
To become a disciple of Christ, a person has to be baptized by Christ with the Holy Spirit. It is a supernatural act performed by God. In fact, that person also has to be drawn by the Father, since no one can come to Christ unless the Father draws him (John 6:44). And so, all three persons of the Godhead are involved in the salvation process. It is in this sense that a person becomes saved when he is baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Ambassadors. Why then does Jesus tell us believers to make disciples by baptizing them? Because when we witness to others, we are acting as ambassadors of Christ. In John 7:38, Jesus says, "Whoever believes in mestreams of living water will flow from within him." And then the next verse explains, "By this he meant the (Holy) Spirit."
You see, when we bring the gospel to someone whom God plans to save, the Holy Spirit that indwells us flows from within us and applies the word of God to the heart of that person. Thus, Paul writes in I Thessalonians 1:5, "Our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction."
Besides baptizing them, Jesus goes on in verse 20: "teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you." A distinct characteristic of every disciple of God is that he has a heartfelt desire to do the will of God. To help them along, it is our duty to teach them to obey all the commands of God.
The promise
It's not easy to be a faithful witness of Christ. Most people don't want to face the truth that unless they become saved, they will be condemned to hell on Judgment Day. Consciously or subconsciously, the world resents Christians. Moreover, Satan and his followers love to perse
cute and discredit God's people. And they cause divisions within the church. All this, of course, can be painful to those who are serving God faithfully.Thankfully, Christ knows it. And so, after He has given us the Great Commission, He closes with this great assurance: "And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
Sometimes when we are going through deep waters, we often feel as though God is far, far away from us. And so, we pray desperately that He would come near to us. Likewise, when our believing loved ones are suffering from one thing or another, we typically ask God to be close to them. The fact is, if we remember this promise of Christ, we should know that our Lord Jesus is with every believer always.
More often than not, we fail to experience God's presence because we have let our immediate circumstances obscure our view of Christ. When that happens, instead of asking God to be with us, we ought to do what James 4:8 says: "Come near to God and he will come near to you." To come near to God is to seek God and obey His commands. When we do that, we'll find that Christ has been with us all the time.
Intimate relation. Christ is with us always because His Spirit is indwelling us. As such, He identifies with us intimately. Remember how Paul was converted? Originally a Pharisee called Saul, he had been persecuting Christians viciously. One day, while he was on his way to Damascus to arrest Christians there, the Lord Jesus stopped him. And we read in Acts 9:3-5:
As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" "Who are you, Lord?" Saul asked. "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting," he replied.Did you catch that? The Lord Jesus asked Saul, "Why do you persecute me?" And when Saul asked who He was, He answered, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting." Saul was persecuting Christians, but Jesus personally felt that persecution.This is not only a comfort to us, but a serious warning to us as well. If we engage in criticizing the servants of God, we are criticizing Christ Himself. And Hebrews 10:31 warns, "It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."
To the end. Since Jesus already says He will be with us always, why did He bother to add, "to the very end of the age"? Isn't that redundant? No, I am convinced that Christ gives us that added assurance because the end of the age, the age in which we are now living, is a time when Satan is most vicious.
Indeed, most churches today have fallen away from the teaching of the Bible and are following all kinds of man-made traditions. Worship services are designed to please men rather than to exalt Christ. People want only teachers that say what their itching ears want to hear. As a result, we who faithfully proclaim and teach the word of God as we carry out the Great Commission will find ourselves in a smaller and smaller minority.
But don't ever forget that our Lord is there to strengthen us. He is with us always; He will be with us to the very last day of this earth. So, beloved, go and make disciples of all nations courageously. You may be a lone voice in the wilderness now; but when Christ returns, you will find yourselves in heaven among a great multitude of believers, singing praises to the Lamb and thanking Him for His divine mercy, grace and love. o